OPENING STATEMENT:
"This week, we are playing a very good football team in Cal. Going into this season, they have an outstanding defense. Their quarterback is now playing very well for them. They are starting to open up the offense a little more. But, the defense is their calling card. The head coach does a really good job. They do a nice job at playing strong defense. They have won some games that are impressive. To go down in the SEC and win a game is impressive. They are 4-0 and the only undefeated team in the PAC-12. That says a lot about who they are. They are really good on 3rd downs, they are 32 percent red zone efficiency and 31 percent scoring. So, they do not give up a lot of points. They have given up 69 points. That says a lot. They sack the quarterback, they get after the quarterback and knock him down. They sack him and do a pretty good job at putting pressure on the secondary because they feel like they have one of the better secondaries in the country, which they do. They have played together for a while. So, this will be a tough test for us. As I said, the quarterback is an athlete offensively and can make a lot of plays with his legs, he has done that in the past. Now, he is throwing the ball a lot better and starting to trust the offense. It is kind of ironic. I would have never thought in my lifetime and when I went to college there and then went to San Diego State, that I would actually be visiting these campuses again. I have been back numerous times, but as a coach, the world is a circle. I remember a lot of great memories walking to that stadium as a player and playing on a pretty good football team. This was the first college I attended, this was the first college I attended as a freshman back in 1972. It seems like it was just yesterday. There are a lot of memories for me when I go up there and visit that campus. I have taken my daughters there just to show them where dad first went to college just to give them the spectrum of where their dad was before they were even born. It is kind of interesting when you walk around that place. This will be interesting walking into that place now as a coach. I cannot believe it to be quite honest. Going to San Diego State was one thing. Now, I am going to this place and I am thinking to myself, ‘you have got to be kidding me.’ It will be a lot of fun.”
ON OFFENSE SLOWING DOWN IN SECOND HALF AGAINST COLORADO:
“Third downs. We just could not convert on third downs. Both offenses only scored ten points in the second half. Defenses finally showed up. In the first half, I thought it was going to be like Washington State-UCLA. I did not even see that game until after. When I saw that score, I thought that must have been a fun game. I think both defenses showed up in the second half and it just became a battle of third downs. We got off the field a couple of times. We had the opportunity to convert a couple, we just did not do it. That is what that game became; It became this high scoring game in the first half. Then, there were ten points by both teams in the second half. We were just on the short side of it.”
ON HAVING LESS SUCCESS ON SECOND DOWN THAN FIRST DOWN DEFENSIVELY:
“We are a team that has a lot of movement up front to try to create one-on-one matchups to get to the quarterback, also, if you do not understand your gap responsibilities and you are not sound in the A and B gaps, you get some leaky runs. At times, they were leaky. One guy may have hit them, but we did not have the linebacker in place to finish it off. It became five or six yards, which put them in a lot of third and shorts. That is what we were in for the most part then we settled down in the second half. We struggled with that in the first half. When we rushed four, they blocked us. I always say that if they block five guys, someone is going to get one-on-one and win. We never collapsed the pocket. It was always clean for him (Steven Montez). When quarterbacks have a clean pocket, similar to what Jayden (Daniels) had, it becomes very difficult because they can survey the field and these quarterbacks are good. He is a Senior and he has played a lot of football. We did not contain the edge and he slipped outside. That makes it a serious problem because he got a few first downs with his legs and he makes it third and short instead of third and long. It is hard to live that way, so we have to do a better job. This quarterback has similar traits. He can run fast, he is an athlete, he can run, so we have to contain him.”
ON HOW LOSS AFFECTS PERSPECTIVE OF FRESHMEN:
“So far after three games, we had not lost a game so they had never felt or understood that. When you are winning, it is like a balloon. You just keep expanding and you feel good because you have all this energy. It is not that the balloon gets popped, it just gets leaked. You have to fix it. You like the energy. Going into today, I told the coaches that they were going to be NFL coaches because they are going to be here awhile so I made it a big emphasis today with coaches that we have to provide the energy. We got on the practice field and they got some enthusiasm going. They are disappointed, which is a good sign. They are not sad, but they are disappointed. They had an opportunity to do something and it got away from them. Now, we have another opportunity.”
ON EXPANDING OFFENSE IN THE PASSING GAME:
“Opponent structure has a lot to do with how we go into games. We just felt that we could do some things in the passing game. It worked out for us. We still want to have balance. We ran the ball okay, we had 108 yards rushing. When you make big plays in the passing game, it gives you energy - it lifts everybody up. The problem is that they kept making some after we made some so it became this game of slowing them down and then having to match them. I think what ignited our offense was helped by our defense for three weeks. Now, our offense had to help our defense. That is good. That is what you want because that is what a team is all about. You go into this plan every week and you are hoping it comes to fruition. Against Michigan State, it did. It played out the way we wanted it to. For this Colorado game, I was not thinking it was going to be 14-21. I had a feeling it was going to be in the high-20’s. I have been in enough games where I get a gut feeling as a coach. I never tell our players that. I didn’t it expect it to be tied at 14 before I turned my head around. By the time I got a drink of water, there were another 14 points on the board. I did not like that. It became a game in which our offense was pressed, so they knew they had to do something to get the game in touch again.”
ON HOW FRIDAY NIGHT GAME CHANGES MENTALITY:
“You lose a day for coaches and players. For players, they are used to having a day off and then playing. We are short, we will have to deal with that. In the NFL, we knew on our calendar if it was a quick turnaround whether it was a Thursday or Monday game, we had already built that in. In the NFL, it is a little bit different. If you know the opponent and the staff has stayed in place, then that is one of those summer projects that you are already doing knowing that you are going to have to hit it in that week of the season. The practices are similar to what we did today. We do not have as many players. We only had 60 players. That is a different league. There is no pads that week at all. The players like that, but the practices are fast. It is kind of what we tried to do today with helmets. We will probably put some shells on tomorrow. It is more on the players in college than in the pros in terms of preparation, because we only have them for certain hours of the day. In the NFL, guys are there in the morning and they are fed breakfast. They are just there. They can stay longer. These guys have to do in on their own when they leave the facility."
ON HOW TO MAKE GAMES LESS STRESSFUL AND FIND AN EASIER WAY TO WIN GAMES:
“Learning how to finish them off is important. When you have a lead, build on a lead. Defensively, close them out by not relaxing. Against Michigan State when we went ahead, I looked at our sideline and all of our guys were jumping around. I told them that we have to play defense. There is time left on the clock. The game did not just end, we were fortunate to get out of there. When you play close games, there is no panic to their credit. They find a way to get back in the game. That says something about who they are because that is hard. When you are not doing anything on one side of the ball, to find a way in which you have to make some plays to get back in the game. They have been able to do that so that is a positive for me. But, yea I would like to extend it. I get a little gray when they do that. I have lived it all last year. I did not want to live this year, but I am living it again this year, that is football. Hopefully, we can learn from this.”
ON JAYDEN DANIELS AND BRANDON AIYUK’S RELATIONSHIP:
“He has a veteran presence, he has played in games. I think Jayden leans on him at times when he wants to find a comfort zone, similar to what Manny (Wilkins) did with N’Keal (Harry) because they have a relationship. This has been building since the off-season, it was building in the spring, you can see it. You saw it in the summer when they would go out all by themselves. I am sitting in my office and I look out the window and they are on the field, doing things and talking. That is a good thing and I think you will see more of that as this thing continues to build, especially with Jayden and these young receivers, that is when you get good. Me and Jayden were just on the field talking about it today. This is what has to happen, moving forward and he understands it, he gets it. I said there are going to be a group of guys, we got some other ones coming too. You have to get them all in the fold here, so we can keep building this thing. This anticipation of that is we understand it, but you can not hurry it. It is a process, it is hard, it is cumbersome. Sometimes you fall down and you have to get up and that is what we are going to do.”
ON HOW COACHING STAFF HAS RESPONDED TO FIRST LOST:
“Very good and it is good that we have been together for a year. When you are with a staff, the read comes from the head coach, what is the head coach going to do? They have seen me when we have lost games, they have seen me when we have won games. You folks have seen that too, my personality does not change a whole lot. When you win, it is a relief. When the game is over, I have moved on. I have flat moved on. When the loss comes, it is harder because you look at it, and say ‘What did I do?’ Did I do something in the game where I could have made a better decision - I look at myself first. When we win, I am happy for those guys. But I actually move on, I just let it go. I am onto the next game and that is how I have always functioned. When you lose, you make it harder, you feel for all the work that was put in. You work so hard every week to win a game and when you fall a little short, could I have done something in practice or say something to another coach. You have to let it go because when you stand before them and your coaching staff is kind of getting the lead off on how the coach is getting ready to react. Every coach reacts different, you have to be who you are, win, lose or draw. When they have been with you for a year, they kind of know, this is what he is going to do. He is going to be okay, but I am very competitive. Sometimes people take that as ‘Do I care,’ if I did not care, I would not be here. I have done television. If I did not care, if I did not like competing. I like competing, it fuels me. When you do not want to do that anymore, you have to get out. You have wasted your time.”
ON UPDATE ON CAM PHILLIPS AND IF ANOTHER FRESHMAN WOULD SET UP:
“That would be correct. If he misses time, there will be another freshman, it would Willie Harts. He did not practice today, he is a little sore, we will see where he is at. It is not that he is out, but we try to bring him along. Short week hurts you too. Every time I look at these backup guys, another freshman. I looked at the other side of it, if Aashari (Crosswell) goes down, we have another freshman. They practiced today, I said get ready. It would be a home week for Willie (Harts), he is from Pittsburg, California, he is going home, if he has to play, he will play. He has played some, if he has to start, so be it, go start."
ON WHAT ATMOSPHERE WAS LIKE WHEN HE ATTENDED CAL:
“Social movement was prominent. There was a part of America that had growing pains and a lot of young people were inquisitive. It was not the norm for young people to have a platform where they could speak and ask questions. When you go there and that is what drew me to there in the fact, that I could have gone a lot of places coming out of high school. They recruited me when I was very young, they recruited me when I was a sophomore in high school. High school then was ten, eleven and twelve, they started recruiting me. The first time that I went to that campus, I thought like what is this place because you saw all these different types of people. They had people’s park, they had it all. They get up on the plaza and free speech. There was always a free speech every day at 12:00 o’clock. I can remember sitting there with some of the guys and just listen to all these people talk about whatever it was. That kind of drew me in because this is different because I am hearing different voices from maybe voices I did not hear when I was young. My father was a military man and there was an order at the Edwards household, there was an order and you did not step outside the box. Now I was inquisitive because I was always peaking over. When I went there, my eyes were open, you are talking about 1972. It changed my life, it really did. It made me grow up very quickly and made me understand that you are going to have to make a decision on some things in life right now, what do you want to become? There are a lot of things out there that you can dabble in if you would like and you have to choose your road now. That was the first time I was away from home, obviously, I was not that far from home, only two hours. But it felt like I was miles and miles away. I think the greatest story about this one is my good friend Tony Dungy, he went to Minnesota. Four-or-five years ago, he has some relatives that live in Oakland and so Tony went over to the campus and I am working for the worldwide leader (ESPN). He calls me up and says, ‘You are not going to believe where I am at right now,’ I reply where are you at TD, and he says I am on the Cal campus. I asked how he liked it and he says ‘I can see why you went to this place, that is why you are crazy, you went to this place.’ I said it is different and then I think you get it, it is just different. People think outside the box, people voice their opinions, whether it is right-wrong or different. For me, it was the perfect place. Can you imagine as a freshman, one of the mandatory classes for athletes was Harry Edwards? You had to go to his class if you were an athlete, you attended his class and I know Dr. Edwards from that day forward. I met him when I was a freshman and I have known him ever since. But to sit in that man’s room and tell you about the Civil Right Movement and about athletes in sports. He was involved in the ‘68 deal, if you look at the history of this. To sit there and gain knowledge from so many guys and from him especially. Because before I started playing, he was at the college at San Jose State and he was a professor there. It was quite interesting, to say the least, to go to school there.”
ON ASHTYN DAVIS:
“There has been some guys to come out of there, he is a good player. Number twenty-four, he is a good player, great eyes and anticipation. I am going to tell him in the warmups that my record is still in that book if you would like to break it. It is still sitting there, four interceptions in one game against Washington State, Charlie Peck was the quarterback. It still sits in the books, no one has broken that yet. I am going to tell him, you can go ahead and get it because it is sitting there."